National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

lake. HASLUND was obliged to row the whole time, for this time we had no wind to help us.

The otherwise uniformly shallow lake is rather deeper on this northern line; 4.12 meters was our maximum on this trip. If the water is deeper anywhere between our two lines the difference cannot be more than a few centimeters.

With increasing distinctness we saw the tents in the new camp. We saw the browsing camels as small dots. Presently we could also see the flag waving. A little after two o'clock we arrived. The crossing had taken us scarcely three hours. This second sounding-line was 11.5 kilometers in length.

The Mongols had a deep loathing for lakes, rivers and boats, and they found my trips on the water incomprehensible and insane. Professor Sm and LI had set off on their walk round Sogho-nor in the morning, but we had not seen them on account of the great distance.

The ox-cart we had ordered from the prince had been delivered in good time. It was driven by a shrivelled little old Torgut and followed by five black dogs. He was,

however, on account of the unevenness of the ground and the soft sand, unable to

proceed due west to the Oboin-gol, and had to start from a point that lay some kilometers to the S.S.W., where the boat was lifted up onto the ox-cart and roped fast.

That night I slept soundly in the consciousness of having spent two unforgettable days on Sogho-nor and conquered a new lake in Asia. It was well-known before, but I suspect that no-one before us had defied Sogho-nor in a boat.

MOVING OVER TO THE OBOIN-GOL

On the morning of October 24th I was awakened by the whir of thousands of birds in flight. LARSON went out to have a look, but it was too dark for shooting. After sunrise he brought down a couple of sand grouse. Later on, LIEBERENZ shot at least a dozen of these fine birds, whose flesh is quite a delicacy. A couple of his shots were really splendid marksmanship. The sand grouse flew just along the shore in dense flocks, one after the other at short intervals. They are said to leave the dry plains for the lakes or the rivers at certain times in order to drink.

After a ride of something over ten kilometers we reached the river Oboin-gol at a sharp bend, where the crown of the terrace-like bank lay 6.19 meters above the surface of the river. From here the sandy bank sloped straight down into the water at an angle of 35°.

Everybody except LARSON felt a little queer in the stomach after Sogho-nor's soda-water. Now we were longing for a taste of proper river-water. And how we drank! One cup after the other. The river-water acted almost immediately as a very potent remedy against the ill-effects of the soda-water, and I for my part became better at once.

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